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Move & retire

France

Health cover after three months, on the lowest income bar on this site.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$2,950/mo
Couple, all in. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.
Safety
Mid
Ninety-ninth of 163 — the lowest-ranked country in Western Europe, held down by internal unrest and arms exports rather than by violent crime
Residency
A visitor permit at the minimum wage, renewed
Healthcare
Covered after three months, whoever you are
Out-of-pocket spending is 9.2% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2024, CC BY 4.0). Read it with care: the measure counts only what insured people pay — not premiums, and not the uninsured — which is why the United States comes out at 10.9%, ahead of most countries on this site.

More is being checked.

Where these figures came from

One row per ingredient. Open any of them for the source, how far we trust it, and when we last checked.

Living~$2,950/mo

Pathoff judgement directed by evidence, not computed from it: the country’s position comes from the World Bank household consumption price level for 2024 (0.776 of the United States, CC BY 4.0 — the ICP benchmark carried forward annually by the World Bank’s own method); the US reference budget is ours. See the Pathoff method, section 12.

Couple, all in. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.

Confidence
made by us from the source
SafetyMid

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 99 of 163, score 2.083. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Ninety-ninth of 163 — the lowest-ranked country in Western Europe, held down by internal unrest and arms exports rather than by violent crime

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyA visitor permit at the minimum wage, renewed

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "A route with conditions you can meet": The long-stay visitor permit is published, granted on resources of about the net minimum wage — roughly €17,000 a year, the lowest such threshold on this site — renewable annually and leading to a ten-year card after five years. High in the band. Below the open band because the permit prohibits work and renewal is at the prefecture’s discretion.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcareCovered after three months, whoever you are

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "Covered, and it covers everything": Protection universelle maladie entitles anyone in stable, regular residence to state health cover after three months, employed or not, and the system treats everything domestically at a high standard with short waits by European comparison. At the foot of the band because reimbursement is partial and nearly everyone carries a mutuelle for the remainder.

Out-of-pocket spending is 9.2% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2024, CC BY 4.0). Read it with care: the measure counts only what insured people pay — not premiums, and not the uninsured — which is why the United States comes out at 10.9%, ahead of most countries on this site.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09

What it is like here

France asks less of an incoming resident than almost anywhere: the visitor permit is granted at roughly the net minimum wage, and after three months of stable residence anyone is entitled to state health cover regardless of employment. It is Western European in price, the paperwork is French, and the country sits ninety-ninth on the peace index — the lowest in Western Europe, for reasons of unrest and arms exports rather than street crime.

How the process works

1

Long-stay visitor visa at the consulate

Means at about the net minimum wage, private cover for the first year, and accommodation.

⏱ 1–3 months
2

Validate online, pay the tax

The VLS-TS becomes a residence permit; skip this and it lapses.

⏱ 2–4 weeks
3

Apply to PUMA after three months

Then take a mutuelle for the part the state does not reimburse.

⏱ 2–6 months

Where people settle

Occitanie / Dordogne
The long-established foreign-resident belt, and the cheapest
Côte d’Azur
Warm, expensive, and full of people who did this already
Lyon / Bordeaux
City medicine and fast trains without Paris prices

Open any ingredient above to see where its figure came from, how far we trust it and when we last checked. Nothing here is a substitute for the official source. Last reviewed 2026-09-04.

Photograph of France by Yann Caradec from Paris, France, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.